Natural Selection Bean Lab Summary

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Goldfish Lab

Section I

The problem of the Goldfish Cracker Population Genetics and Evolution lab that I was trying to solve was to determine the allele frequencies of my own population, as well as the classes frequency using the Hardy-Weinberg Equation. The alleles in this lab would be the different types of goldfish crackers, the original, pretzel and cheddar cheese. Our procedure was separating the different types of crackers in every generation an recording how many of each type there was and determining the frequency of that type of cracker from the total population. Our outcome showed that the Brown Goldfish allele (F) was becoming more frequent and the White Goldfish allele (f) was declining from the population. This showed that the dominant allele became more evolutionary "fit" in this environment in our lab.

Section II

Hypothesis: If the dominant allele for the Brown Goldfish was passed on to following generations, then that species of goldfish will dominate that environment and continue to be prevalent in future generations.

Our data was collected by counting how many goldfish we had each generation and then calculating frequency by the equation 2 (FF) + 1 (Ff) and then recorded onto the appropriate places on the table.

Section III

My Results Data Table

White

White

Gold

Gold

Brown

Brown

Generation

Number

Frequency

Number

Frequency

Number

Frequency

1

3

.3

4

.4

3

.3

2

1

.1

6

.6

3

.3

3

2

.2

4

.4

4

.4

4

0

0

5

.5

5

.5

5

0

0

4

.4

6

.6

F (p)

F (p)

f (q)

f (q)

Generation

Total Alleles

# of F Alleles

Frequency of F Alleles

# of f Alleles

Frequencyof f Alleles

1

20

10

.5

10

.5

2

20

12

.6

8

.4

3

20

12

.6

8

.4

4

20

15

.75

5

.25

5

20

16

.8

4

.2

Class Results Data Tables

White

White

Gold

Gold

Brown

Brown

Generation

Number

Frequency

Number

Frequency

Number

Frequency

1

29

.322

35

.389

26

.289

2

14

.156

46

.511

30

.333

3

13

.144

42

.467

35

.389

4

4

.044

38

.422

48

.533

5

7

.078

27

.3

56

.622

F (p)

F (p)

f (q)

f (q)

Generation

Total Alleles

# of F Alleles

Frequency

of F Alleles

# of f Alleles

Frequency

of f Alleles

1

180

87

.483

93

.514

2

180

106

.589

79

.411

3

180

112

.622

68

.378

4

180

134

.744

49

.256

5

180

139

.772

41

.228

Section IV

This lab relates to the theme of Evolution. The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium demonstrates the unchanging frequency of alleles and genotypes in a stable, idealized population. This equilibrium concept can also see if evolution has taken place in a population.

Errors that could have taken place could have been the recording of incorrect data. Equations that were used in this lab dealt with small numbers in decimal form and if done incorrectly could result in a wrong reading of how a population in a certain generation is growing.

Our expected results were for the White Goldfish and the Brown Goldfish to grow directly proportional to each other seeing as we collected 3 of each type in the first generation. This was, of course, before we created our hypothesis.